The current state of Panguna Mine and Bougainville

Once the world's richest open cut gold mine, nowadays Panguna Mine is a hole in the earth full of toxic substances and big enough for clouds to live in (see video above). Since its inception, it has been the carrot dangled by politicians and entrepreneurs to the people of Bougainville. The mine and its value to Bougainville is such a complex equation that I am only slowly coming to understand it after four years of working on my documentary project.

I am very excited to finally be heading back to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.

I have a busy trip booked that will see me meeting a Minister from the Autonomous Bougainville Government, several farmers from the Central Bougainville region and many friends that I have made from my previous trips there. I have been chipping away at this project for three years now and I feel as though I am only just starting to gain an understanding of the place and people who make up this Pacific island nation.

I have never travelled to a more diverse place – there are so many languages, so much history and so many political views in such a compact, geographically diverse island.

This trip I am aiming to find more ways to give back to the people in exchange for their stories of life during this period of autonomy. I am planning on taking the junior-school photos at Panguna (again) and have packed a lot of instant polaroid film for the people I meet and photograph during my visit. I will also be taking a drone with me for the first time to video the villages and landscapes to help me in painting a better picture of life in Bougainville. I plan to use this footage to gain support for funding this project a little further down the track... a project within a project.

After a 10 year civil war with the Papua New Guinean (PNG) Government, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville will vote for independence between 2015 and 2020 and my goal is to document what life is like their, through my photography, during this period.

Charlie Kirk is an English, ex-Japan based corporate lawyer, who is now a full-time street / documentary photographer, based in Istanbul, Turkey. He is working obsessively on a book, and he shoots with film, on a Leica, predominantly in 28mm, in both black and white and colour. He loves grain, flash, pretty women, "fat kids", "dwarfs", people kissing, cigarettes and beer. He is a great guy and a harsh critic.

Last year I started a long-term project to document life in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. My goal is to connect with people from across Bougainville to document what life is like there, to stand as a witness to the forming of their nation and to add to their voice to the outside world.

Robert Frank's work 'The Americans' was deemed too controversial at the time he had completed it. He had essentially created a raw snapshot of America, warts and all, that no one had ever successfully done before and this resulted in a die hard following by many influential artists at the time including Jack Kerouac, the Rolling Stones and Allen Ginsberg.

Having met Alex and his wife Rebecca in Poland I can say that I really admire his humility, gentle approach and persistence to capturing difficult images. He is very down to earth, incredibly approachable and I think that is what allows him to sometimes become invisible to his subjects. Alex has achieved a mastery of colour photography and is easily one of my top five favourite photographers of all time.

Jesse is an Australian documentary photojournalist and street photographer. I have met him on a few occasions and definitely admire his long term approach to photography. He is based in Melbourne and shoots both film and digitally.

Trent Parke is the next photographer I thought I should post about as he is an Australian who produces consistently inspiring, unique and well thought out work. And because I'm a massive fan of his work. My Queensland friends should definitely have a look and a laugh at the familiar scenes of his 'AUSTRALIA. GOLD COAST. 2006' series.